Shujaat Husain Khan is one of the greatest North Indian classical musicians of his generation. He belongs to the Imdad Khan gharana of the sitar and his style of playing sitar, known as the gayaki ang, is imitative of the subtleties of the human voice. Shujaat Khan’s musical pedigree extends seven generations. He is the […]
Eight Kings Play
An actor wears many hats throughout his or her career but Farhad Colabavala takes it quite literally in ‘Eight Kings’, a play about the eight Sultans who ruled Delhi during Nizamuddin Auliya’s time. Written and directed by Vikramjeet Sinha, ‘Eight Kings’ sees Colabavala channel, all eight rulers, by donning a different turban for each part. […]
Indo Creole Musical Concert
Rene Lacaille is a accordist, guitarist, percussionist, drummer, juggler, singer, and musician from the Réunion Island . He represents a musician of exceptional standards with an eagerness to meet new people and share the intense moments. Marco Lacaille, also born to the same musical family started playing at the age of 14 with his father […]
Documentary film SWCD by Roohi Dixit and Zeba Bhagwagar
The film features eight eminent women — Shabnam Virmani, Kabir singer; Anusha Yadav, founder of Indian Memory Project; Shilo Shiv Suleman, artist; Preeti Shenoy, author; Vidya Pai, LGBT activist; Rekha Menon, MD, Accenture; Swati Bhattacharya, creative director and Sapna Bhavnani, celebrity hair stylist, each of whom has carved a niche in the multi-hued landscape of […]
Discussing Pluralities/ Marginalities in Contemporary Indian Art
While Indian art history has incessantly discussed and recorded art as a unifying and universal phenomenon, recent academic scholarship in New Art history has been trying to understand distinctions of schools , cultures and visual languages that seem to assert identities of various kinds, be it of culture, gender, caste, class etc. Art schools located […]
So many cinemas: Do Indian film makers have to be responsible to their audience?
India is the largest producer of cinema in the world. Concerns are that are we sacrificing quality for quantity. Visual effects, entertainment value and commercial interests have always challenged the scope of developing cinema that focuses on social issues or simply innovation in story-telling and film-making. Have we already crossed the threshold towards our downfall? […]
Sufi Performance by Dhruv Sangari
Dhruv Sangari (also known as Bilal Chishty) began training in Hindustani classical music at the age of 7 under Smt. Shahana Bannerjee and Tabla with Pt. B.S. Ramanna. Later, he developed an interest in Sufism and Sufi music, and began learning Qawwali under Ustad Meraj Ahmed Nizami of the Delhi-Qawwalbachhe Gharana. Dhruv has a masters […]
Transpositions – Artist Interactive Session with Rashid Rana
Widely considered to be most original and prominent artist working in South Asia today, Rashid Rana lives and works in Lahore. Distinct for his ideas, imagery and pictorial strategies, he has worked in dramatically different modes, such as paintings, stainless steel sculptures, video installation, photo-sculptures and photo mosaics. He has shown extensively at various public […]
Documentary film Spaces Between by Roohi Dixit and Zeba Bhagwagar
Spaces Between is a poetic interpretation of the artist Nikhil Chopra’s fifty hour long performance piece titled La Perle Noir II: Aspinwall. The film attempts to unearth the mind of the artist. Through imagery reminiscent of memories of his private life, both real and visceral, the film creates a tapestry of the artist’s state of […]
Spaces versus Time: Mapping historiographies; the narrative of Performance Art in India
Spaces versus Time: Mapping historiography; the narrative of Performance Art in India Examining the theoretical problem of rooting Performance Art in India, in an attempt to move beyond allegations of a ‘derivative discourse’. A comprehensive understanding of mediatic and contextual shifts brought about by performance as a concept can be understood. Going beyond the notion of the […]